Apple (AAPL) And T-Mobile USA Agreement, What Does It Mean?

Stocks remained relatively flat on Thursday after the Labor Department announced a sharp drop in jobless claims from last week. Data showed that 370,000 people had filed claims for the week ending on Saturday, down from the previous weeks 395,000. The shrinking unemployment claim number ensures that the effects of super-storm Sandy have passed. Tomorrow the Labor Department will announce the jobs report for November. In October the economy added 171,000 new jobs; however analysts are expecting a number closer to 100,000 for November, after Sandy and her disruption to the East Coast.

Online game producer Zynga (ZNGA) announced that they have requested the Nevada gambling regulators grant them permission to enter the U.S. gambling market. This is the first U.S. based move for the company since ending their exclusive contract with social media giant Facebook last month. They have already disclosed a deal to offer online poker and casino games, with real money, in the U.K. They plan for this to launch in the first part of 2013. They have put a request in for an “application for a preliminary finding of suitability” from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. This is part of the plan for the company to enter into the real-money gaming world. This process can take anywhere from 12 to 18 months and if this passes they will apply for a gaming license in the state which can take an additional two to three months.

The European Central Bank announced this morning that they would leave rates unchanged. ECB President Mario Draghi announced the disappointing projections for growth and inflation at their press conference this morning. The GDP projections for 2012 were downgraded from the -0.2% to -0.6% range to -0.4% to -0.6%. They also downgraded their 2013 projection from -0.4% to 1.4% range to -0.9% to 0.3%. Draghi also announced that inflation forecast for inflation was 2.5% versus the previous range of 2.4% to 2.6%. Inflation forecast for 2013 were lowered to a range of 1.1% to 2.1% from the previous 1.3% to 2.5%.

Department store giant Macy’s (M) announced that they will be staying open for 48 hours from 7 a.m. December 21 to 7 a.m. December 23. On top of that, most of the 800 stores will stay open until midnight on the 23. They are expecting holiday spending to increase 4.2% for the year. Still below last year’s 5.6% but surpassing the average among competitors. The company’s stock is up 21% for the year and revenue for the current quarter is expected to rise 7.2% to $9.35 billion.

T-Mobile USA announced that they have signed an agreement with Apple (AAPL) to begin carrying their products in 2013. No details have yet been released as to which exact products they will carry but the iPhone 5, iPad and iPad mini are lead contenders for possibilities.